Cops: Intoxicated Driver at 11:30 AM Stopped at Pumpkin Festival Crosswalk

The first report police had about Luis Criollo’s driving was from a motorist who said he saw a vehicle traveling very slowly and erratically on the Post Road near the Darien YMCA, police said.

But police couldn’t find the black Ford Explorer pickup.

Darien Police say the next report they had was from an officer directing traffic at a crosswalk near the intersection of Tokeneke Road and Old Farm Road.

And that officer couldn’t get the vehicle to stop when he directed the driver to do so, police said. People were about to cross the street there to get to the Tokeneke School Pumpkin Festival.

Police gave this further account (accusations not proven in court) about the matter that resulted in an arrest:

At 11:14 a.m., a driver called police to tell them he saw the truck moving very slowly eastward on the Post Road near the YMCA. The driver saw that the bald man with an orange t-shirt who was driving was leaning forward, and the truck was moving in an erratic manner between lanes.

About 15 minutes later, at the crosswalk, an officer directed the black 2002 Ford pickup to stop, but it just kept moving forward. The officer saw the driver sitting about as far forward as possible, with his chest close to the steering wheel staring straight ahead, apparently oblivious to his surroundings.

The officer directed a traffic agent to stop the vehicle, and the traffic agent was able to get the driver to stop.

The officer went to the pickup and spoke with the driver. The officer immediately smelled beer and saw five empty Corona beer bottles on the passenger seat, a sixth one, partly full, was in the cup holder of the center console.

When the officer told the driver to turn off his engine, the driver at first stared at him in a daze. In getting out of the car, he was very unsteady, with glassy eyes, and he smelled of alcohol. His pants were wet from the crotch down.

Field sobriety tests were given to him, which he did not pass. He was taken into custody and at police headquarters was given a breath test. The first est showed 0.21 blood-alcohol content; the second, 0.20. The legal limit for an adult is 0.08, so the content was between two and three times the legal limit.

He identified himself as ”Mario Carrillo” and gave his birthdate as Dec. 30, 1973, but when he was fingerprinted and his fingerprints were compared to those on file in a national database, they identified him as Luis Criollo, 45, born in 1969. Criollo had also given police a false home address.

Criolo, of Wallace Street in Norwalk, had a suspended Connecticut driver’s license.

He was charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol driving despite having a suspended driver’s license, interfering with a police officer (by giving a false name), disobeying the signal of an officer and operating an unregistered motor vehicle.

Criolo was initially held on $5,250 bond, but the next afternoon, a bail commissioner reduced that to a promise to appear in court. Criolo is scheduled to appear Oct. 28 in state Superior Court in Norwalk.